


London Gray

by nerdyfangirl34



Category: The Infernal Devices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Drama, F/M, Fluff, Love Triangles, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-04
Updated: 2017-05-19
Packaged: 2018-10-14 22:19:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10545280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdyfangirl34/pseuds/nerdyfangirl34
Summary: Tessa Gray was perfectly fine with her life in New York. She had an aunt that loved her, friends, a brother. Now, everything seems to change as the death of her aunt rattles her steady life. Her brother shuts her out and sends her to a boarding school in London, away from her friends. How will she survive in the Institute with the bully 'Shadowhunters' and barely any friends?





	1. i

It wasn’t like I wanted to go to the boarding school that I had won a scholarship to. I was content with my friends here, Clary, Simon, Jace, Alec, Isabelle, and Magnus, and the education wasn’t bad. But my brother, Nate, said that it would be a lovely opportunity to receive a better education. Honestly, it sounded like an excuse to get me out of the small one bedroom apartment we have shared ever since Aunt Harriet died a few months ago. Nate had developed a gambling obsession ever since she died, therefore, making it feel like I do live alone, besides the bills barely getting paid by Nate’s home job. Mortmain had given Nate a job because my father worked for him. Or, at least he  _ had _ before he died in a car accident with my mother. 

“Everything packed, Tessie?” Nate calls to me from the kitchen. I nod solemnly, wanting to wake up and this just be a horrible dream. That I wasn’t leaving my friends, my sanctuary, the only people that keep me going ever since my aunt died and Nate shut me out. 

“Have fun!” he calls to me waving as a taxi, already loaded with all my possessions, most of which being books, takes me away. The taxi arrives at the airport and my bags go through security. There, as I am about to walk through security, I spot them. 

My friends. 

My home. 

And I was leaving them!

I rush into Clary’s arms. We cling to each other like our lives depend upon it. Which, in all honesty, they probably do. 

“You can’t forget me! No matter how rich you become from writing your books, or whatever seriously hot guys start crawling all over you, you will never forget me, you will tell me everything, you will still be here for me, understand?” Clary demands. 

“Of course, Clare Bear,” I say to her, “there is no way I’d ever forget about you or any of you, but don’t get your hopes up, because, in reality, there’s no chance I’m going to fit in.” Eyes glance at me skeptically. “Oh come on! Did you even see that place? It’s for billionaires, no, sextillionaires! There is no way I’d go there if I had a choice,” I declare. Which is the absolute truth, how was I supposed to fit in with the people I detested at my own school, and they weren’t nearly as rich? I wouldn’t. 

I look at them, all of them, and my eyes start to burn. I cannot cry here. 

I cannot cry here. 

“Group hug!” Isabelle declares. Within seconds, I am wrapped in Clary’s arms, Isabelle’s arms, Simon’s arms, Alec’s arms, Jace’s arms, and Magnus’s arms, and I realize, that for a long time, this will be the last piece of comfort I will get. No more anything.

No brother, no friends, no closet with nothing but books stacked high in piles, that turn out to be really hard to get out, in it, no scratched couch to do my homework on. 

No more home. 

Eventually, we pull apart. All of us, even the boys, have tears streaking our faces.

“I’m gonna miss you guys,” I barely manage to choke out, stunned at how unstable my voice sounded. 

“We’ll miss you too, Tess,” Magnus says. My friends are the only people who have ever called me Tess. I give them each a hug goodbye. 

“Don’t forget to call,” Clary, Simon, Jace, Isabelle, Magnus, and Alec shouted in unison as I walk through security. I look back at them, they weren’t perfect, but neither was I, to me, it doesn’t matter if they are perfect or that I am perfect. It only matters that I fit in somewhere. 

They were that somewhere. 

As I look back, I see Jace comforting Clary, while she sobbed, with tears streaming down his face as well. Isabelle was comforting herself quietly, but eventually turned to Simon and cried into his shoulder. Magnus and Alec both had tears on their faces but were standing there. They said something to the others.

“We miss you already, Tessa Gray!” they shout and then put on a small, broken smile and waved at me. To which, I responded with tears flowing down my face without stop. They were in pain, the people I loved like they were my family, and it was my fault, I was the one leaving. 

I boarded the plane, trying not to break out into a complete sob, but to no avail. For as soon as we started to take off, on the roof of the airport, I noticed the tiles spelt out:

  
  


WE LOVE YOU TESS

C-J-I-S-M-A

  
  


I leaned against the window crying harder than I cried when my aunt came in and told me that my parents had gone, and no, not just for a trip, gone forever. 

Crying harder than I did when Nate shut me out, when he shut the world out and began to gamble. 

Crying harder than when Nate would come home late at night drunk and would pass out on the couch, sometimes in his own vomit, and I would spend the morning I had cleaning. 

Harder than when he would hit me while drunk, blaming me for our parent's deaths, for Aunt Harriet’s death, blaming me for all the pain that he tried to drink away every night. 

I used to think myself brave, but nothing,  _ nothing _ in the world could’ve prepared me for this emptiness. The emptiness of knowing that tomorrow at exactly 11:45 AM in New York, they would be sitting down for lunch, and I wouldn’t be there. I would be eating lunch with a handful of snobby kids that would be showing off ten thousand dollar bracelets they would only wear once. 

Those are the kids I hate, and they also happen to be the kids I was going to school with. Even worse, one of these girls would be my roommate. 

I pressed my forehead against the glass and looked at New York. From above, it looks nothing like the New York I know, the New York that I love, the New York I grew up in. 

_ Welcome to the real world _ a voice in the back of my mind tells me.


	2. ii

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa arrives at the Institute and meets her new roommate.

When the plane lands, I carry my bags to a car that was waiting for me, provided by The Institute. It was a black Mustang, the nicest car I’ve ever seen. I felt so uncomfortable putting my bags in the back seat before climbing in myself. The seats were a black leather, and very, very comfortable. 

I look at the dark gray sky,  _ this is nothing like home _ .

***

We arrive at the Institute, a huge looking school, one that looks like a castle. I gulp and remove my bags from the car, and walk inside, awed at how much money they spent on this place. Each chandelier looked like it cost a fortune, and had been decorated like it was from the 1800’s, which I admit, is pretty cool. But, yet again, no place for me. 

I walk into the front office, where I see a young girl sitting at the front desk. 

“I’m Headmaster Branwell, can I help you?” she asked. I cleared my throat.

“Yes actually, I am a new student, my name is Tessa Gray,” I reply nervously. She looks at me, eyes wide and bright. 

“Um, yeah, yeah! It’s just...not a lot of people that actually get a scholarship… actually come,” she shares with me and I feel nauseas. 

“Oh, but don’t worry, it’s a great opportunity,” she sings with a smile. I almost cough out loud and ask, ‘excuse me, what?’. 

I swear, if another living soul tells me it will be a great or fun or good opportunity I will end their life. I put on my finest fake smile. 

“Yes, well I agree, I cannot wait to start class,” I reply, trying to sound like I mean it.

Apparently, I am a good actress as well, she totally bought my enthusiasm. 

“Well dear, let’s not keep you waiting any longer.” She pulls out a folder of paper and hands it to me. “In here, you will find your schedule, your dorm number and your ticket to get your uniforms.” I smile and thank her before walking out, bags trailing behind me. 

Opening the folder, I spot my dorm number.  _ Dorm G-14 _ . I suppose G stands for girls. Following the signs to where the girl’s dormitories were, was pretty simple, and it didn’t take me long to open the door and shove my things within. Inside, I find a dorm bigger than the apartment that my brother and I share. I stare at the room in awe. I gape at the chandelier that lit up the place. 

I gape at the Queen sized bed I get  _ all  _ to myself. 

I gape at the closet space. I notice a dresser already filled with clothes, a bed that was already made, but not as straight and perfect as mine, a closet already filled with uniforms and clothes.

My heart starts to pound, why do I have to have a roommate, wouldn’t they understand if I didn’t? But, no, I must. I hear the lock of the room start to turn and I want to run and hide in my closet. But I don’t. I just stand there, staring at the door that would reveal my roommate to me when it opens. Then I see her. She has dark brown hair, so dark it seems black, perhaps it is. 

She has a small figure. 

But the most mesmerizing of all, she has midnight blue eyes. 

I just stand there, gawking at my roommate, how pretty she is, how plain I am. Clary would’ve stood out with her fiery red hair and Isabelle with her figure, but not me. Not plain Tessa Gray, the only thing remotely interesting about me being my love for old books, such as Dickens. As I stare at her, she stares right back. Awkward silence hangs in the air, but neither of us making a move to break it. I’ve always been shy, I could’ve probably stood there for hours, mesmerized by her eyes. 

Then she seems to snap out of the trance we both were under. 

“Hi, I’m Cecily, your...your roommate I guess,” she introduces. She had a very distinct Welsh accent, beautifully rolling out her vowels.  

“My-my name is Theresa, Tessa,” I amended, “Gray.”

“Hello Tessa, well, I should probably show you where to put things and everything and then, we should go get your uniform, classes start tomorrow,” she tells me. I nod and smile, she smiles back. It seems perhaps at least someone in this school isn’t bratty or snotty from what I can tell. 

“Okay, so your clothes go here and you can put everything else in your closet,” she starts. I pull out my clothes, dumping them into the dresser she had pointed at. She goes to open my suitcase and all of my books start to tumble out.

“Oh my gosh!” she exclaims, as she falls over by all the tumbling books. 

“I’m so sorry!” I exclaim. 

“What kind of madness would ever have driven you to pack a suitcase full of books?!” she yelled at me, astonished.

“I like them…” I say, looking down, embarrassed. She looks at me, then bursts out laughing and before I knew it, I was on the floor laughing too. 

I helped her clean up the books on the ground. We put them on the shelf in the closet. 

“Phew, that was a lot of work!” Cecily exclaimed to me, brushing the sweat from her forehead. 

“Thanks for helping me, you really didn’t have to,” I tell her, sitting down on the couch, feeling absolutely grateful for the roommate I have. 

“It’s not a problem, besides, we’re roommates now, aren’t we?” she asks me while sitting down on the couch next to me. 

“Yeah, I guess we are,” I say, looking out of the window towards the dark and gloomy sky, feeling suddenly homesick for the sunny one at home. 

“There’s a few things you might want to know about this school before you start tomorrow,” she tells me abruptly. I search her face for any source of silliness, but find none. I nod my head, waiting for her to tell me some news. 

“Well, there’s people here, on a scholarship, like you, who are smart, not very popular, sometimes picked on people called ‘The Shadowhunters’.” I take a breath in, audibly. She looks at me and sighs. 

“Unfortunately, one of those people is my  _ brother _ and his friends, and their girlfriends? I...uh...don’t know what they call their girls I guess. I don’t think they’re dating, but they make-out and kiss...A LOT,” she says dramatically. I become overwhelmed with the disgusted feeling for her brother. 

I thank the Angel that she isn’t like him.

“But yeah, as long as you stay away from them, nothing should happen, and don’t worry,  _ Will _ will leave you alone if I give him a good yelling or so,” she tells me, fake punching to the air. 

“Thanks for telling me,” I tell her, “so, what are the classes like?”

“Well, they are good, for the most part, I mean, they are super advanced and everything so it keeps it interesting,” she says with a smile, “you’ll love them.”

We talk for a while longer. She talks me through what they are studying in classes and we talk through what the chiefs had served for dinner. 

“Should we go get your uniform?” Cecily asks me after we refolded my clothes and stowed them away in the wardrobe. 

“That would be lovely,” I reply, opening the door and waiting for her to walk through before shutting it and locking it. 


	3. iii

We walk down the girl’s dormitory corridor, and I notice that no one else is around. 

“Where is everyone?” I ask Cecily.

“Oh, they’re probably at the Nightly Party,” she tells me, seemingly it was no big deal to them.

“Nightly Party? By the Angel, who throws a party  _ nightly _ ?” I ask her, completely blown out of the water about the fact that there is a  _ nightly party _ . 

“First of all, there’s always been a Nightly Party, since the first time I arrived, I guess it’s sort of a thing, and second of all, did you just say ‘by the Angel’?” she asks me.

“I say it often, sorry,” I apologize and she laughs.

“What’s so funny?”

“I’ve never heard anything so funny, who, just who says ‘by the Angel’?” she says laughing. I guess it is quite funny if you think about it that way, but to me, it is now a habit that I cannot seem to break. 

“Me, I guess,” I reply, sarcastically, successfully making her laugh about ten times harder. 

I hear dance music playing from a room and automatically guess that that’s where the party is held tonight. Cecily and I walk right past it and to the Service Office. That’s right, there’s two different Offices. By the Angel, why?

There I hand my ticket to the lady at the front desk, who wasn’t wearing a nametag and didn’t bother to introduce herself, so I didn’t bother asking. 

“Do you usually go to those party things?” I ask Cecily on the way back to our dormitory. 

“Yeah, but I’m not a big fan of watching people make-out, dance with one another, drink things with people. Definitely not one of those people who like to watch their brother make-out, quite passionately I might add, with some girl,” she tells me, disgust creeping into her voice. I don’t blame her, who would want to watch that. I think about watching Nate even kiss a girl and shudder. 

“I don’t blame you whatsoever, I can just imagine watching my brother do something like that,” I point out, shuddering again at the mental image of just how awful it would be.

She laughs. “I probably could be a Shadowhunter, I just don’t think I’d like that, you know? I got here on a scholarship, but I was going to be paid for by my parent’s anyway, but my brother, just came here on my parent’s money, and look where it got him. Making out with a girl, I’m not sure he’s still a virgin anymore,” she states to me, a fore longing look betraying her cover. 

I pull her to me in a hug and she instantly wraps her arms around me. No matter how much pain I was going through moving here, I would hide it around her, just as she tried to do me. We break apart and walk straight past the Nightly Party, which I still can’t get over, to our dorm. 

Once inside, I walk over to the sink, getting us both a glass of water. “Well, if you don’t want to go to those parties, I’m not going, we could always have a party here on our own, like maybe we could play truth or dare!” I exclaim.

She nearly spits out her water. “You’d do that, give up your chance to be popular, for me?” she asks me, clearly stunned, though I had no idea why.

“Yeah of course, I’ve never been one to like popular kids anyway,” I tell her and she giggles. 

“Truth or dare?” she asks me. Now this was tricky, I liked answering questions that people have about me, but I also never backed down from a dare. 

“Whichever one you want,” I tell her with a smirk, though, the reason I’m smirking lies completely unknown to me. 

“Then you’re doing dare!” she says instantly. I almost regretted saying that she could pick. But, Tessa Gray was never one to back down from a challenge presented to her, and she wouldn’t start now. 

“Okay then, dare it is,” I tell her, successfully keeping my voice from wavering. She smiles, taps her chin, like she was thinking hard then, out of nowhere, pops up from the couch and does a little dance. 

“Oooooh, oooooh, oooooh. I’ve got it!” she practically shouts, I cover my ears and she sits back down. “Sorry,” she apologizes. 

“It’s ‘kay,” I say and motion for her to continue. 

She takes a deep breath, like that would be the only thing to keep her calm. “I dare you to go to my brother’s room and destroy his closet. I mean, throw his clothes out of the closet and then come back. Don’t worry, I’ll come with you and everything, but I’ll be hiding!” she says whilst jumping up and down excitedly. 

I could handle this one right? I mean, it wasn’t like I even knew this  _ Will _ or anything. “I’ll do it, but how are we going to get in?” I ask and she pulls a key out of her pocket, not our key, a boy’s dorm key, you could tell by the ‘B’ on it rather than the ‘G’. 

We walk down to the boys dorms, snickering the whole way. This was definitely adrenalin pumping. We reached the room and I was fidgeting with my hands. I was about to do something risky. If her brother was the way she had described him, a cold, uncaring, selfish, monster this would be a breeze.

But the thought that this is something that Jace would always dare me to do never wavered from my mind. 

_ Jace, Clary, Simon, Isabelle, Alec, Magnus _ .

I try to remove them from my mind and focus on the present. I still have to call them. They told me as soon as I got to the dorm, but I completely forgot! I’ll call them after I go destroy Cecily’s ice cold brother’s room.

She puts the key in and twists it in the lock and the door pops open. There I see a neat and clean room ready for me to destroy. I walk in and she closes the door behind us. I take a look in the closet and start whipping out the clothes, ripping some for extra measures. I go the bed, made as good as student could make it and tear the covers off and grab the sheets and the comforter spitting on them for some good fun. Cecily was laughing the whole time, I guess I probably look like a dog looking for attention. 

I finish strong, by ripping the curtains down on his side of the room, making Cecily have troubles breathing because she was laughing so hard. 

“I..could...get...used..to this,” she says laughing. I smile and start laughing. 

“We should get going though, before he comes back and literally murders us,” I tell her. She nods and we start to leave. We open the door and shut it behind us, locking it. 

Just as we are about to walk away, we hear two voices. 

“Cecily was supposed to come, why didn’t she?” a boy’s voice with a slight Welsh accent told another. I guess this is Cecily’s brother.

“Crud!” she whisper-shouts to me. 


	4. iv

“Do you think we should go check out her room,” someone with an accent that I couldn’t identify replied.

“Let’s just see if she called us,” the Welsh one replies. We hear footsteps and before we can run away they spot us. 

I can see right away who Cecily’s brother is, dark hair, just like her’s and the same mesmerizing eyes. 

No wonder every girl seemed to be obsessed over him, but the way Cecily described him, I have no want or need to get to know him at all. His companion was pale, paler than me in winter. He had silver eyes and silver hair, a weird but unique combination. 

“Cecily Herondale! Where have you been?” the dark-haired boy yelled, Will. 

“At my dorm, does it even matter to you?” she asks, trying to get us away before he opens his dorm’s door. I don’t blame her. 

“You were supposed to be at the party!” he shouts at her, I have a very strong urge to punch him in the face, if this continues much longer, I probably will, I’ve never been one to cower. 

“It’s just the same stupid old party every night, what’s the point?” she asks and I do admit, she has a spectacular point. 

“The point is it’s a party, you  _ have _ to come,” he replies. She rolls her eyes in reply. “Don’t you dare roll your eyes at me!” he basically shouts at her. I want to interject, but I’m not sure he has even realized I’m here yet, he hasn’t taken his strong gaze away from his sister yet. 

“ _ You _ are not the boss of  _ me _ ,” she shrieked at him loud enough for probably everyone at the school to hear. He seemed mad, mad enough to tear the whole building down, and, in honesty, with his strength, he probably could. 

I think it’s high time I interject. 

“Let’s go Cecily, he isn’t worth our time,” I say with pride. His eyes flicker over to me. I grab her arm and start dragging her along with me down the corridor. 

“Hasta la vista, big brother,” Cecily tells him, following me sprinting down the corridor. 

“Come back here,” I hear him yell, but I only hear it faintly for we are too far away. We open our dorm door and slam it shut behind us so that he cannot enter. 

“God, that was close,” Cecily breathes. I laugh, now we wait until he sees what I did, what we did. 

“Thanks, back there by the way,” Cecily tells me. 

“For what?”

“For saving me from my brother’s wrath.”

“Protective much?” I ask and she giggles with a nod. We hear a loud knock on the door and then a whole bunch of cursing. 

“Cecily Herondale!” I hear the familiar voice, that belongs to the one and only William Owen Herondale, shout into the door. This is closely followed by a bunch of things that are most likely banned from student’s vocabulary in this school and in every other school there is. “You open this door right now!” 

I shook my head and she shook hers so we stayed silent as he banged on the door, growing more mad by the minute. 

“CECILY!” he shouted at the door, with us unmoving on the other side. I begin feeling that the small wooden door between us wasn’t enough. Maybe add a little metal to it and everything and I’d feel safe. 

“Will, calm down, maybe it wasn’t Cecily,” the voice from earlier said.  _ Yeah _ the voice in my head said.  _ Calm down, don’t murder us _ .

“Who else could it have been? She’s the only one that had a key besides us, and you were there when she was outside of our dorm!” Will shouted to this person. 

I immediately feel bad for them, they have to literally live with Will. 

“Oh pish posh, Will, so what if she messed up our dorm?” 

“So what? So what? Oh you don’t wanna ask me so what!” Will shouted back and then pounded on the door some more. “Open up Cecily, right now, and the consequences won’t be as bad as they are going to be if you don’t open the door right this instant.”

She sucks a breath in and looks at me, with pleading eyes. I want to tear this William apart, for installing this fear into my new friend. 

“Whatever you need to do,” I reply in a whisper. She nods. 

“William, you will murder me if I open this door,” she replies to the pounding, psychopath on the other side of the door. 

Will makes a scoffing noise, and the voice from earlier replies for him. “I won’t let him do that Cecily.” I would hate to be the person that apologizes for Will’s behavior, I would just untie him and say, ‘hope you find it fun when someone murders you for your actions.’

“And how do you suppose you’d stop Will from killing me and my friend, Jem?” Cecily replies. I take a moment to process that she called me her friend, then smile until I realize that Will will just kill me instead of her. 

“And your friend?” the boy, Jem, asks. 

“Yep, my roommate and friend,” she replies. 

A pause in the knocking on the door occured and Jem did not reply. I looked over at Cecily and she made a confused face. 

“Jessamine, how lovely of you to show up,” Jem says, sarcastically, I could tell, but it didn’t seem apparent to her for she giggled. 

“Will, you left me there at the party, all alone, waiting,” she informed him seductively. I shudder visibly. 

I pretend gag for Cecily’s pleasure and she covers her mouth to stop herself from laughing. 

“I have to do something,” he said, just as seductively, “then I’ll be back, tell Gabriel and Gideon that I have to deal with CH.”

We hear footsteps walk away as Cecily mouths to me, ‘CH is my ‘code’ name.’ 

“Come on, Cecily, open up,” Jem says. She looks at me and I nod, ready to face this monster of a Will. 

She carefully undoes the lock and pulls the door open to reveal the silver eyed and silver haired boy named Jem, holding Will’s, the midnight blue eyed and black haired boy, hands so he cannot murder us. Why is it that the handsome one is always the bad one?

Did I just call Will handsome?

No.

Nope, nopety, nope. That didn’t happen. 

“Cecily,” he breathed, anger evident in his voice, “what were you thinking?”

“Tessa and I were trying to have some fun,” she replied, trying to keep the fear from her voice. 

The confusion is evident in his eyes, his eyes, eyes a whole dimension themselves. You could lose yourself in them…

No!


	5. v

“Tessa?” he asks, clearly confused, but I guess I must be invisible or something, because him nor Jem have looked over in my direction for this whole time being. I want to shout in their faces, ‘I’m right here, suckers, come and get me!’

“Yeah, Tessa, why is that such a surprise to you?” she accuses him and by the look on his face, he has some feelings because he definitely looks as though he feels guilty for not remembering my name. 

“Uh, Tessa?” he repeats again, then side glances to Jem, who shakes his head, as if to say, no luck, I don’t remember this girl either. 

“Ugh, you two are impossible!” Cecily says, defeated, and I couldn’t help but laugh. 

Instantly, Will’s and Jem’s heads turn to me and give me the once over. Cecily walks over and puts an arm around my shoulder. “Meet Theresa Gray, my roommate, but she goes by Tessa,” she introduces. “Oh, and she has this crazy obsession with books, like A Tale of Two Cities and books by Dickens, she packed a whole suitcase full of them!” 

Great, she just had to point that out. Jem smiled and Will had this look on his face like his world was ending.

“Roommate?” he questioned, in a very high pitch. 

“Yes, do you have a problem with that?” I ask. Cecily smiles, probably at my bravery. I am proud. It will get me in trouble someday, but today it makes me brave.

He raises his eyebrows at me. “What did you just say to me, a Shadowhunter?” he asks me and I scoff. 

“I  _ said, _ ‘Yes, do you have a problem with that?’ I refuse to repeat myself to you or anyone else, no matter if you are a  _ Shadowhunter _ or not. By the Angel, you and your people need serious help. I could suggest a therapist, but I know that she’ll just send you and your  _ Shadowhunters _ straight to the mental hospital, so I suggest, instead, that you go there,” I tell him. “Now, if you’re done rudely snooping around Cecily’s and I’s dorm, I have a call to make.”

He stares at me, and I wonder if he speaks English. “Do you understand or must I speak idiot for your brain to process? I said scram!” I yell at him. 

Jem grabs Will by the arm and pulls him along out the ajar door, down the corridor, him gaping the whole way. 

“By the Angel, he seems like a lot of work!” I exclaim to Cecily, shutting the door. I notice that she isn’t smiling and isn’t laughing. “Is something wrong?” I ask her, concerned. 

“How did you just say that to him? How? I can’t say anything like that to him, I don’t know why, I just can’t, and any girl can’t seem to  _ resist _ him, so how do you do it?” 

“Uh, I just remember what he puts you through and it pretty much fuels me enough,” I tell her. She nods. “Sorry, I have to video call my friends, they’re already going to kill me for waiting this long.” 

I walk over to my bed and pull out my laptop and get skype ready, I see they’ve sent me multiple messages and I instantly feel guilty, they had this sleepover for me. 

I start a call and wait a couple seconds before they pick up. 

“There you are! We’ve been worried sick!” Clary informs me. 

“I know, I know, sorry, I’ve been...sorta busy..” I tell her and everyone else. 

“Details, darling, details,” Magnus reminds me. I wind up telling them the whole story about arriving and how horrible the weather was today, and how different the Institute is from our school. I also didn’t forget to mention the nightly party, which they thought was absurd as well. I faltered on the part about Will, not knowing how to describe him. Eventually, I decide on everything I hate in a person and they nod knowingly. 

Oh, how I’ve missed them. They tell me news from their school, who knew I could miss so much in only one day. 

Alec got his first B of the whole year, which was surprising, he rarely gets anything less than an A. 

Clary painted a painting for me, which she would give to me when I came to visit in two weeks, though they didn’t know that, they didn’t know when I would be visiting them. I haven’t told them yet. 

Jace became a second-degree black belt, receiving his belt just after I had left. I congratulated him. 

Simon had watched the new Star Wars movie and began to rant about it to me, with me ranting back, for I had seen it already. 

Isabelle had designed a new outfit, a beautiful dress with shoes that she had sent for me to wear, I told her of my appreciation. 

Magnus had helped make it, with him doing all the glitter on the dress, and it looked spectacular, it was the color of the sunset and the glitter only helped it. For the weather, they said. 

“Oh, you have no idea how much I miss you!” I tell them, wanting the distance between us to cease to exist, just me right there with them. 

“We’ve missed you so much, but we have to go to bed, it is 3 AM here you know,” Isabelle says. 

“Yeah, okay, goodnight Izzy, Clare, Alec, Magnus, Jace, and Simon, call me tomorrow!” I remind them. 

“We will, night Tess,” Jace says and then the screen goes black and their gone. I feel deflated. Nothing left in me. I desperately want the two weeks to be nothing. For me to get on a plane home right this instant. But I know that I have to survive two weeks to deserve that. 

With all that I’ve done, I’ve made some very powerful people angry. 

And a friend. 

Sounds just like me to do that in six hours I’ve been at a school. 

I crawl into bed and realize that I wasn’t alone in the dorm. 

“Tessa?” Cecily asked. 

“How long have you been there?” I question her. 

“Long enough to hear how much you miss them, what’s it like?”

“What is what like?”

“To have friends like that, friends that would paint you paintings. Friends that would tell you that they got a B on their test because you were gone. Friends that would make an outfit just for you and friends that you would do anything for?” she asks me, I try to interrupt, to deny, but she stops me. “Don’t. I know you are trying to hide it, but there’s no need, I want to be friends with you, but I don’t expect to be your only friend, I just ask that you actually give me a chance, please?” 

“Why wouldn’t I? I need friends here, besides, I think that they’d like you, if you want, you can talk to them with me when I call them again,” I offer. 

“I’d like that, goodnight Tessa.”

“Night, Cecily.”


	6. vi

I awake to an alarm clock screaming at me, an alarm clock louder than the one at home, that would rarely have a successful day and actually wake me up. I jolt up, thinking that it might be the fire alarm until Cecily informs me that this noise was just the alarm clock. 

I change into my school uniform and brush out my hair. I stare at my reflection, hoping that it’s enough to get me through the day, though I doubted it. 

I walk out to where Cecily was waiting for me. 

“Ready?” I ask.

“You have got to be careful, Will just doesn’t forget things like what you did, and he tells his friends and then, it’s almost always game over,” she informs me. 

“I’ll deal with it, I have some experience dealing with people like this, just not without…” I let myself trail off. 

“I know, Clary, Jace, Simon, Isabelle, Alec, and Magnus.”

“How do you know-”

“I was listening, remember, I saw how easy it was for you guys to laugh and tease each other, how you were holding off crying, I saw it,” she reminds me, and I become silent. 

We walk down to the room where we’d be eating, hand in hand. When we walked in, everyone became silent. Some whispers scattered all around the room, making me feel uncomfortable. ‘She’s Will’s sister, though, she’s nothing like him, she’s nothing’. ‘The one on the left, she’s the one who said those horrible things to Will, she’ll pay’. ‘They are both worse than criminals, they completely don’t care about how sacred the Shadowhunters are’. Basically, people whispering things about us all around. I pull Cecily’s arm to keep us moving. Sitting at a table that a lot of people were sending glances to, was none other than William Herondale, sitting with Jem, and two other boys I didn’t recognize. 

Three girls took their seats at the table, one sitting by Will, and the other two sitting by the boys I haven’t met yet. I wondered if perhaps Jem’s girl was sick. Cecily and I got in line and eventually, we both picked chocolate chip pancakes without any syrup but filled with whipped cream. We both giggled at the similarities. We sat at the very right side of the lunch room, alone completely. No one sat by us, but every so often I would catch people glaring at us, especially the people sitting with the infamous Will and his crew. The very people I said must be put into a mental hospital. 

Oops.

Was I sorry?

Not at all.

We ate and talked and laughed and didn’t care about what anyone thought of us, just like we should. When we finished eating, we walked to dump our trays and put them away. On our way back, we happened to be stopped by Will, Jem, the two boys from earlier and the three girls from earlier as well. 

The seemingly Shadowhunter crew that I had told to go to a mental hospital. 

Fun.

“Well well, if it isn’t  _ Theresa  _ Gray,” taunted Will. 

“It’s Tessa to you,” I retort. The girls look about ready to murder me. Let them try, let them try, and if they lay a finger on me, I’ll get the gang here and we’ll teach them a lesson of manners. 

“Well aren’t you just one lovely flower,” Will murmurs loudly. It seemed he didn’t want me to hear, though I know all too well that he did. Everyone standing by him stifles their laughs, except Jem, who doesn’t laugh at all.  

“That’s me,” I say in reply earning a laugh from Cecily and  _ Jem _ . 

Will’s midnight blue eyes hit my gray eyes before switching over to glare at Jem. “What was that?” he asked carefully like he might explode. 

“She’s funny, so brave,” Jem replied and I feel again that today I am brave, but this will get me in trouble some day. 

Will’s fists became clenched. “No, she isn’t, she’s just an imposter, making everyone think that she’s one thing when really, she’s the complete opposite,” Will said to everyone, making the Shadowhunters laugh, including Jem, and Cecily clench her fists instead. 

“You wish,” I mutter. But, he heard me. 

“What did you say?” 

“I said ‘you wish’, what did I say to you about not liking to repeat myself?” I ask him angrily. He sucks in a breath right as the bell rings to signal classes were to start in a half an hour. I start to walk away, but not before Cecily comes and walks next to me away from Will and his Shadowhunters. 

By the Angel, I hate those people already! They are going to give me troubles. So much trouble. Cecily and I stop by our dorm to pick up our books for classes, my first class being Advanced English Lit. 

Unfortunately, at this time Cecily had gym, so we say our goodbyes and I head off to study the Classics, my favorite books. I take a seat in the front, awaiting the teacher’s arrival. I was first, even before the teacher, so when he staggered in five minutes from being late, I gave him a fright. 

“Woah!” he exclaims, startled. “What are you doing here already?”

“I’m here for class, my name is Tessa Gray, I’m new here,” I introduce. He comes and holds out his hand. 

“I’m Mr. Branwell, Headmaster Branwell’s husband,” he told me with a smile. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Branwell,” I greeted as I shook his hand. 

“I see you’ve met Theresa,” a voice from the doorway interrupts, a voice I know all too well. I peer up at him and see the same blonde girl standing next to him from earlier. 

I know that must be his girl, the ones that aren’t necessarily their girlfriends. 

“William, Jessamine, you’re early,” Mr. Branwell tells them. 

“Yes, well, we had no other place to be rather than here, apparently,” Jessamine replies with a smirk my way. 

I shift uncomfortably in my seat. 

“Do you know these people, Tessa?” Mr. Branwell asks me. 

“Yes, Cecily Herondale is my roommate, so, unfortunately, I have gotten to know at least one of them fairly well enough to know the basic outline of their character. And the other, probably not that much different, though I’m wondering how these two got into Advanced English Lit.” I reply cautiously. 

“Oh, we aren’t the only ones,” Jessamine says, and in walks Jem, the two boys from earlier, and the other two girls from earlier, the whole Shadowhunter group. 

“By the Angel,” I mutter under my breath, thankful no one seems to hear me.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading our story! We'll try to post regularly but it may not work with our schedule as we have lots of things going on.
> 
> ~Molly and Savanna


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